SWWW Chapter 218: Xi Nian's Choice, The Third Artifact
Blue light mist surged and swirled from the pendant, and from it emerged the figure of a black-haired youth.
The boy in a red trench coat clutched the pendant in one hand, holding the unconscious scarlet-haired girl tightly in both arms. On his shoulder, a little orange cat was perched.
Xi Nian glanced around.
He found himself standing in a main hall built in Western cathedral style. Ahead of him was a spotless vintage wooden staircase glowing softly under the dim light. Beside the stair's landing sat a strange piece of furniture, shaped half like a cauldron, half like a great urn.
Behind him—
Through the doors and windows, he could see the bustling modern streets of New York outside. But none of the noise reached inside. It was as if this place was completely cut off from the world.
Silent, clean, sacred…
This was—
The New York Sanctum!
"We made it."
Xi Nian let out a small breath of relief.
He knew that although this building sat within New York City, complete with a proper address, the Sanctum itself was guarded by protective spells. Without the guardian's permission, no one could simply step inside.
Fortunately, this was the first location recorded in the spatial pendant.
And since the pendant was crafted around the Space Stone, its priority was extremely high—apparently high enough to bypass the Sanctum's magical defenses.
"Wanda, you'll be fine, I promise you'll be fine."
Lowering his head, Xi Nian looked at the unconscious girl in his arms, then called out loudly into the Sanctum:
"Ancient One, are you here?"
"Guardian, Master Daniel! Where are you?"
"Is anyone here?!"
…
His voice echoed endlessly through the halls of the Sanctum. But there was no reply.
The relief Xi Nian had just felt tightened again into a knot of dread.
This was bad.
He remembered the Ancient One had said a few days ago that after lending out the Mind Stone, she would need to enter seclusion for cultivation.
Normally, a guardian would always reside in a Sanctum like this one. But if the guardian wasn't here, then there was no second sorcerer stationed.
After all—
This wasn't Kamar-Taj. That was the sorcerers' main base, where they cultivated in seclusion.
And here was the problem.
When Xi Nian had acquired the spatial pendant, he had never been to Kamar-Taj. Which meant the pendant had no teleportation coordinates for it.
Otherwise, today's second use of the pendant would have been to Kamar-Taj, not the fallback of the New York Sanctum.
"Master Daniel!"
"Mr. Daniel!"
Xi Nian shouted the guardian's name again and again as he ran quickly through the ground floor halls. His red trench coat fluttered as he leapt up the stairs and onto the second floor.
But it was the same there—empty and cold. Not a single sorcerer in sight.
Xi Nian's heart sank lower. He knew now the guardian of the Sanctum wasn't here.
Otherwise, the moment he had stepped inside, the guardian would have sensed it.
This was truly the worst outcome.
He had hoped to find the guardian and then reach the Ancient One through them. But with even the guardian absent, there was no one to turn to.
That meant he could only rely on himself!
"Meow!"
Suddenly, Xiao Huang cried out at the girl in Xi Nian's arms.
Xi Nian looked down quickly—and saw Wanda's scarlet energy becoming more and more pronounced. Her body, which had been cold, was now burning hot to a dangerous degree!
Her flowing scarlet hair was now laced with strands of pure red energy!
This wasn't improvement. It was the sign of complete loss of control.
"I have to purge it—or suppress the Stone's energy inside her."
Xi Nian drew a deep breath, forcing himself calm, then looked at Xiao Huang on his shoulder.
He had one idea.
He could shift into his symbiote mode, merge into Wanda's body, and attempt to fight the Stone's energy from within.
Ideally, he could force the Stone's energy substance out of her entirely.
But Xi Nian wasn't confident this would work.
As a symbiote, he himself was just another energy source. The moment he tried to merge into Wanda, the Stone's power could react violently.
And even if he succeeded—could he truly resist the unknown nature of the Stone's energy?
If anything went wrong halfway, he would have no chance of turning it back.
"Is there another way…?"
Xi Nian muttered to himself.
But Wanda's condition was worsening fast. In his arms she felt like a burning furnace. He had no time left.
He had to decide!
"Xiao Huang!"
Gritting his teeth, Xi Nian was about to commit when a sudden thought flashed in his mind.
Wait—this was the New York Sanctum!
Even if its guardian wasn't here, the Sanctum's relics still were!
Clutching Wanda close, Xi Nian rushed down the corridor into a storage room that looked like a mystical museum exhibit.
Dragonfang Sword, Agamotto's crystal sphere, the Staff of Watoomb…
Artifacts of every shape and kind crowded the room.
"Magic Cloak, quick! Is there anything here that can help me?"
Instead of picking randomly, Xi Nian asked aloud.
After all, who understood artifacts better than an artifact itself?
At his words, his red trench coat hesitated for a moment, then tugged his body forward, guiding him to a glass case.
Xi Nian raised his gaze.
Inside was a long strip of vivid red cloth, floating lightly in midair. Compared to the swords and axes, it looked nothing like an artifact.
Xi Nian remembered.
He had noticed this one back when he first chose his relic, but before he could ask the Ancient One about it, the Cloak of Levitation had dragged him away.
Its name, its function, its origin—completely unknown.
"Can this save Wanda?"
Xi Nian gestured with his eyes.
In that moment—
A streak of orange lightning flashed through the air. Xiao Huang's paw gleamed darkly as it struck down, shattering the glass case in an instant!
Xi Nian reached out to grab the red cloth, but instead it moved on its own, flying straight onto Wanda's body.
Whoosh—
The cloth spun rapidly in the air, like a flaming wheel, before tying itself around Wanda's scarlet hair like a ribbon.
As soon as the red cloth bound her hair into a ponytail—
Under Xi Nian's astonished eyes, the chaotic scarlet energy raging across Wanda's body quieted down, suppressed and sealed.
Her heat fell back to its original coldness. The suffocating destructive aura faded away.
"This cloth… actually works."
Xi Nian exhaled deeply.
It hadn't removed the Stone's energy, but at least it had stabilized it for now.
The strange thing was—Wanda still didn't wake up from her coma.
"We'll regroup with Auntie, and then find a solution together."
Xi Nian thought quickly, then extended his hand once more to grasp the pendant.
This would be the third time today he used the spatial artifact.
…
Five minutes later.
A black sorcerer in monk robes appeared in the second-floor hall of the New York Sanctum, staff in hand.
His eyes widened at the scattered glass shards and faint paw prints on the floor.
"What happened here?"
This was Daniel Drumm, guardian of the New York Sanctum. He was bewildered—he had only stepped out for half an hour, after carefully reinforcing the Sanctum's defenses before leaving.
And yet someone had entered without triggering the defenses… and stolen a relic from the second floor?
"Wait… the one that was stolen was…"
Daniel's face suddenly went pale.
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